Portrayal of women scientists in film

The portrayal of women scientists in film refers to the way that professional women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are written as film characters. The portrayal of women is a hotly contested talking point in the film community, with feminists saying that women are not accurately depicted in films. Judith Mayne, author and professor of women's studies at Ohio State University, claims that the study of female characters in film began with movements from the 1960s and 1970s in the form of second-wave feminism, the rise of independent films, and the beginning of academic film studies.

Scholars offer several different stereotypes that academic women fall under in films. Eva Flicker, professor of sociology specializing in film at the University of Vienna, is a leading scholar on the topic of academic women in film, specifically women in the sciences. Flicker writes that the role of women scientists often reflect that "job stereotypes are combined with gender stereotypes."

Not all scholars believe that objectification is reserved solely for female characters in films. Nöel Carroll, professor of philosophy at Cornell University, writes that men are also strategically blocked for the audience's viewing pleasure. Carroll does not disagree with the notion that women are objectified in film; rather, his stance says that women are not the only ones affected by the erotic gaze of viewers.

Ways of Analyzing Women in Film

In terms of intelligence, women are not often portrayed as equal to men. Eva Flicker writes that in science fiction films, men are overwhelmingly portrayed as scientists, making up 82% of all film scientists. After reviewing 60 movies, Flicker has placed the women shown in science fiction films into six categories.

"The Old Maid"

This type of woman scientist is "only interested in her work" and is often depicted having a nondescript appearance and style. As the film progresses, a man saves her and brings out her feminine side, after which she becomes more attractive. However, she loses credibility as an academic and suddenly makes more mistakes than when she did not focus as much on her appearance. Based on this type of story, Flicker concludes that "femininity and intelligence are mutually exclusive characteristics in a woman's film role." An example of this woman in a film can be seen in Spellbound, in the character Dr. Constance Peterson.

"The Male Woman"

This type of woman works with men in an all male environment. Because of this, she has a "harsh voice" and occasionally "succumbs to an unhealthy lifestyle," such as partaking in smoking and drinking, to fit in with the boys. Flicker claims that this type of woman is "lost somewhere in the middle" of masculinity and femininity, meaning she is not as sexual a character as other women are, but she is also not on the same level as the men she works with. This decreases her credibility both as a women and as one trying to fit into "a man's world." In the end, her heightened female emotions allow her to contribute to a solution, which is her redeeming quality as a character. The "male woman" character appears in the 1970 science fiction film Andromeda Strain.

"The Naïve Expert"

Seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, this woman scientist does very little. For the sake of the dramatization of the film, she is crucial, but she does not advance the story and does not contribute much to the solution. Instead, her femininity causes more trouble for the team of scientists. She is young, attractive, and subject to experience womanly emotions which add an extra layer to the existing predicament, forcing the man to solve the problem in order to get the team out of trouble. She is "naïve in her actions," messing up every task that is given to her despite her extensive education and knowledge, while her male counterpart stands in stark contrast and ends up saving the day.

"The Evil Plotter"

Alison Doody, who played Indiana Jones's attractive female counterpart Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The "evil plotter" woman is young and very beautiful, and she uses her feminine charm to trick the men into doing what she wants. She has an ulterior motive, which is on the opposite end of the spectrum from what the rest of the team is trying to accomplish. She is the character that the audience and the other characters despise by the end of the movie because she is devilishly smart and knows how to use her scientific knowledge and sexual prowess for evil. This bombshell character type was portrayed by Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

"The Daughter/Assistant"

This role of female scientist encompasses many feminine stereotypes portrayed in movies. In this role the woman is subordinate to her male counterpart, who is either her father or her lover. She is smart and capable, but her secondary role does not allow her to demonstrate her abilities. Flicker writes that when this woman plays the role of lover to the male scientist, "her work place is limited to the bed." She is only good for sexual satisfaction, not for the degree she earned. The assistant role is seen in the female Dr. Medford in the film Them!, as she is portrayed alongside an older gentleman of the same name.

"The Lonely Heroine"

This type of woman scientist is intelligent, attractive, and somewhat independent. Flicker says that she "has appropriated some male traits," such as losing herself in her work. She is both sexual and smart, and she manages to exhibit both qualities in the film. Despite this, she is still subordinate to the men on her team, and depends on them and their work in order to gain respect. She is the most progressive of the woman scientist types, but she lacks her own form of independence and still must rely on a sexual relationship with a man in order to be seen as someone. The "lonely heroine" type is best seen in Jodie Foster's portrayal of Elleonore Arroway in the film Contact.

Gravity

Sandra Bullock (center), with director Alfonso Cuarón (right), and producer David Heyman

The 2013 film Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is often heralded as a breakthrough feminist film due to Bullock's starring role. Some who have critiqued the film have written that Gravity "proves that a woman can anchor an action-packed blockbuster that does not have to include violence, superheroes, weapons and/or huge death tolls." While the film's lead is a woman, she gets by with help from her male counterpart, played by Clooney. Bullock's character Ryan Stone is described as "the very model of the damsel in distress," as she can never get out of a situation on her own and must lean on Clooney's character to do the heavy lifting. The role of Bullock's character is thought to be an act of defiant feminism, as she is the lead in a science fiction film, but below the surface viewers find that the film actually subscribes to traditional gender stereotypes and does not at all portray Bullock's character as a true independent woman.

Female Characters as Objects in Film

Flicker argues that women are often pigeonholed into these six limiting roles when written in films. Each of these roles places the female scientist character on the sidelines, and does not allow her to be on the same level as her male counterpart(s). Despite the fact that the women in these roles are educated, and often just as educated as the men on their team, they are used primarily as assistants and sexual characters. Producers strategically write women's roles for the male gaze, often making the female characters use their "weapons of a woman," such as sex appeal, to be attractive to male characters and viewers alike.

Prominent feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey

Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey writes that in film, women are passive objects of the male gaze. Mulvey writes that movies fulfill "a primordial wish for pleasurable looking," and that male audiences are largely catered to in the film industry. In her analysis of film, she states that the lead woman in a film often falls in love with her male counterpart, and when she does, she only exists as a character to please him. Through the male character's ownership of the woman, the men in the audience find themselves owning her as well.

Judith Mayne supports Laura Mulvey's view. She writes that "most feminist film theory and criticism of the last decade" has been in written in response to Mulvey's 1975 assessment, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." She argues that understanding the often sexist portrayal of women in film requires "an understanding of patriarchy as oppressive and as vulnerable." Mayne goes deeper in her argument claiming that feminist film theory inspired feminist documentaries that are "aimed at rejecting stereotyped images of women." This criticism also opens the question about "the notion of woman as 'image.'"

Law professor Sarah Eschholz and her colleagues Jana Bufkin and Jenny Long write that in film, women are often young, and female characters are rarely played by middle aged or older women. Often the only role available to these women is that of the mother, who is not meant to be a leading character. They write that "females' primary societal value is based on physical appearance and youthful beauty." According to their assessment, men are valued at all ages, and arguably more so as they age and become wiser. Most women in film are 35 years old or younger, while their male costars are often older. Despite women in film having impressive credentials and extensive educations, they are often reduced to objects for looking, due to a reluctance to hire an older, less attractive woman for a major role.

In the traditional husband and wife family, women are often portrayed as the second in command. Their husbands take on the role of family head and get to maintain a bachelor level of freedom, which allows them to work and spend time out with the guys. Eschholz, Bufkin, and Long report on studies that show female characters are more likely to be married and have a family than male characters. Men have the freedom to work and be protagonists through their actions, while their wives or girlfriends are forced to take a back seat in the story in order to care for the family.

Opposing Views

Nöel Carroll references Mulvey's pivotal paper on psychoanalysis and visual pleasure in his writing, and plays devil's advocate to her claim that women are the only subjects of gaze. Carroll acknowledges and agrees with Mulvey's assessment that women in film are strategically placed for the male gaze despite the role of their actual character. Carroll states, "Women in Hollywood film are staged and blocked for the purpose of male erotic contemplation and pleasure." However, Carroll adds that men in films are also strategically placed for the purpose of pleasure. He cites such examples as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, big bodybuilding actors "whose scenes are blocked and staged precisely to afford spectacles of bulging pectorals and other parts." Similarly to actresses, male actors are also heralded for their facial attractiveness and are sometimes lauded exclusively for being attractive. As an example, Carroll brings in Leslie Howard, an actor in Of Human Bondage and Gone With the Wind, who was highly successful in the industry despite being "staggeringly ineffectual." According to Carroll, being subject to the erotic gaze of the audience is not an exclusively female burden; rather, both sexes fall prey to Hollywood camera angles that best show off their bodies.

Kristin Thompson, an American film theorist, analyzes the film Laura. In her analysis, she claims that the main character, Laura, was written to embody the role of "passive visual object," which Mulvey and Flicker claim is an extremely prevalent role of women in film. However, Thompson, like Carroll, does not believe that this passive role is limited to women in the industry. Thompson claims that Mulvey's assessment stating that women are used as objects and men cannot handle being the subject of gaze is "common but not universal" in the film industry. She claims that men are also presented in flashy ways in film, and gives the example of Howard Keel in the film Show Boat. Her analysis aligns with Carroll's conclusion that both sexes must be the subject of the audience's gaze, and that objectification is all-encompassing.

Impact of Film Portrayals of Women

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Female scientist drawn in a Draw-a-Scientist Test (Chambers, 1983)

Studies have shown that female scientists are either underrepresented or misrepresented as film characters. As Eva Flicker writes, film has a way of taking social realities and expressing them in media formats. The media formats then are able to influence the audience by creating a mirror of metaphors, myths, opinions and a social memory resulting in stereotypes. The ways that women scientists are portrayed in films have contributed to viewers holding certain stereotypes of scientists. A 2007 meta-analysis by Jocelyn Steinke of Western Michigan University and colleagues looked at gender stereotyping by children who have been exposed to images of scientists through films, television shows, and books. One study reported on consisted of elementary school students taking the Draw-a-Scientist-Test, or DAST. The results showed that out of the over 4,000 children who participated in the DAST, only 28 girls drew female scientists. Another study of 1,137 Korean students between the ages of eleven and fifteen found that 74 percent of them drew male scientists, while only 16 percent had depicted female scientists.